More Holiday Woes
These are holiday woes of a different nature, but ones that we probably are all family with. However the real reason for this Post is to beg forgiveness and grant me more time and patience to address everything that needs doing at this point in time.
The issue:
Taking a summer holiday for a small business is a big issue, it basically means that while away nothing gets done. Depending on the size of the business and the number of people who are away or unavailable can lead to a serious slump in productivity, admin and finance. Put simply if no work is done, none can expect to be paid.
The practical solution:
Put simply, if you know you are employing a small business you need to be aware of this, when they go on holiday it is pointless trying to get them to do things for you. As a customer you have a choice, you can sign up to a ‘big’ business, pay and get the service you require, or you can live with the consequences of saving money and benefiting from the value that a niche business provides.
The rule runs as follows: Time, Expense and Quality, you can only ever have one and the other will suffer.
If you want something done quickly (time) you are likely to pay more and quality may well suffer as well… if you want something to a high standard (quality) then it will take time and probably money and finally if you want something cheap (expense) then it will be mostly take time and the quality will be lower.
As a client the choice is yours, but you cannot expect everything.
The NComp@ss experience
Having just had 1 week on holiday, during which most days emails were checked and emergencies like dealing with the London Riots were dealt with in Holiday Time. It’s always a slightly surreal experience to return home and see the phenomenal workload that has build up just from a single week away. It always happens, but the quantity is still daunting.
In this case, at NComp@ss many services and ALL day to running of our websites is and was handled by 3rd party employees, websites were looked after and marketing was done without interruption. Some websites had a small amount of downtime, but that was taken care of very quickly and everything work smoothly.
The next step at NComp@ss is to sort out the Admin. The holiday period interfered with month end and since Admin, VAT, Accounts, and work of that nature needed to be done and brought fully up to date. Once completed the real work on answering emails and editing or updating websites could begin… On average we probably need to edit between 8 and 12 websites per day. At the moment it is a lot more, maybe 30.
After emails are brought up to date, then can I relax and start to think about phone calls, new work and all the other things that need to be done. This is the rough pattern I have always followed when returning from a holiday, Admin, Updates, Email, Telephone Calls, more or less in that order.
Conclusion
I do ask for your patience, forgiveness and time, we are a small but growing outfit, on this occasion there is more than usual to do and we’re working our way through it, every email will be answered and every telephone call returned. Some structure however has to remain, and I always put your core services first.